Commentary

Nimble, Necessary, Noted for Customized Service

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: The Surface Transportation Board (STB) will hold a public hearing in September to gather information about recent trends and strategies for growth in the freight

ASLRRA President Chuck Baker (ASLRRA Photograph)
Commentary

Seven Reasons to Love CRISI Grants

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE JUNE 2024 ISSUE: If I were writing an ode to the CRISI (Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements) Grant Program, I couldn’t do better than by plagiarizing the title of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most famous poem, “How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways.”

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Commentary

Positively Moving the Safety Needle: Railway Age CEO Perspectives on Safety

The railroad industry is safe and getting safer every day. Short line freight railroads and their employees are woven into the fabric of their communities, so safety is not only the right

Commentary

May 8, a Pivotal Day, Then and Now

May 8 is a big day in railroad history. The transcontinental railroad was completed on May 8, 1869. It was a remarkable achievement that profoundly changed the country by opening the western

ASLRRA President Chuck Baker
Commentary

Supporting the Drive to Net Zero Emissions by 2050

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE: Short line railroads are in business to provide shippers with reliable and competitive transportation service. Doing so requires constant attention to improving operating practices, upgrading infrastructure, and maintaining safety. While that is by necessity their focus, a growing number of short lines are also devoting serious time and resources to maximizing the environmental advantages inherent in rail transportation.

ASLRRA President Chuck Baker
Commentary

Short Lines Are Dependable and Get the Job Done

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE DECEMBER 2023 ISSUE: The story of “The Little Engine That Could” began as an American folktale popularized by various authors in the 1900s. An early published version of the tale appeared in 1906 under the title “Thinking One Can” in Wellspring for Young People, a national Sunday School Publication. A subsequent version was published in 1910 in the Kindergarten Review under the title “The Pony Engine.” In 1930, the story became widely known under the title “The Little Engine That Could” after a Chicago publishing house released it as an illustrated children’s book that was used in schools to teach children the value of optimism and hard work.

Chuck Baker, President, ASLRRA
Commentary

Dysfunctional Washington Must Not Slow Us Down

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE: As this column is written, the federal government is either shut down or operating under a short-term Continuing Resolution. Whether shut down or just limping along, there appears to be little appetite for compromise between the warring factions in Congress. Be that as it may, the short line industry has much government-related business to concern itself with in the coming months.

Commentary

‘The Most Robust Model for Safety Culture Assessment’

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2023 ISSUE: JULY 2023 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Quebec, Canada, the most tragic railroad accident in the modern freight railroad era.

Commentary

Good Hits or Bad Hits? The Determination is Ours

ASLRRA PERSPECTIOVE, RAILWAY AGE JUNE 2023 ISSUE: “And the hits just keep on coming” was a phrase popularized by 1960s radio announcers to boast that their radio station was going to play one beloved record after another. The 1992 movie “A Few Good Men” popularized a wholly different meaning of the same phrase when Tom Cruise (Lt. Daniel Kaffee) who, at the end of a litany of contentious disagreements with his unwanted co-counsel Demi Moore (Lt. Cmdr. Joanne Galloway), utters those words in a sarcastic response to her assertion that, like it or not, she is coming to Cuba with him for his meeting with Jack Nicholson (Colonel Nathan Jessup).

(Short Line Safety Institute Photograph)
Commentary

Safety Is Quite Good—But Not Good Enough

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE MAY 2023 ISSUE: The question on the table is: “What is the biggest challenge facing the North American freight rail industry, and how can it be addressed?” The

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